by Paul Preuss
I’ve enjoyed working with Paul Preuss (though we’ve never met—even by modem), but I’ve now reached the (st)age when I wish to concentrate on projects which are exclusively my own. As Andrew Marvell almost said, “Ever at my back I hear, Time’s jet-propelled chariot hurrying near.”
There are still two volumes to go in the Rama trilogy (The Garden of Rama and Rama Revealed) which I’m writing with Gentry Lee, and Gregory Benford’s ‘sequel’ to my very first (c. 1935-48!) novel, Against the Fall of Night, has just appeared. I should stress that Beyond the Fall of Night is entirely Greg’s work—and I’m delighted that it’s already received some very flattering reviews.
But Beyond Beyond? Well, at the moment I have exactly thirty-four (34) movie or TV options on my hands, and if even ten percent of them materialize that will put paid to any (ahem) serious writing for a few years. My energetic agent Scott Meredith knows this, but it won’t stop him trying to get me involved in other collaborative projects. So in sheer self-defence. I’ve cried “No more—unless there’s some element of great novelty and/or redeeming social value…”
Well—the other day I came across this title (no, I haven’t made it up, and I believe it’s based on genuine historical research):
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S EXPENSE ACCOUNT
by
General George Washington and Marvin Kitman.
This has started me thinking of some interesting possibilities. I rather like the idea of
THE LAST MEN IN THE MOON
by
H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke
How about it, Scott?
* Not to mention the first Director of the Arthur Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.
INFOPAK
TECHNICAL
BLUEPRINTS
On the following pages are computer generated diagrams representing some of the structures and engineering found in Venus Prime;
Pages 2-5:
World-Ship—interstellar Amalthean craft—exterior view; interior view with structural elements; wireframe cutaway of central chambers; interior view of chamber shell, central chambers, outer chambers, locks; reproductions of Amalthean documents.
Pages 6-8:
Lobster—deep-sea minisub heavy-duty manipulators—overview perspective; exterior elements; front, side, and top views; heavy-duty claw; tool arm.
Pages 9-12:
Thowintha—Amalthean ambassador—overview perspective; tentacles; detail of hood and head; wireframe perspective; wireframe view of head and hood schematics.
Pages 13-16:
Medusa—Amalthean vessel—overview perspective; exterior elements; core sphere structural elements; core sphere scans; inner mantle-tentacles.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Arthur C. Clarke is the world-renowned author of such science fiction classics as 2001: A Space Odyssey, for which he shared an Oscar nomination with director Stanley Kubrick; and its popular sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two; the highly acclaimed The Songs of Distant Earth; the bestselling collection of original short stories, The Sentinel; and over two dozen other books of fiction and non-fiction. He received the Marconi International Fellowship in 1982. He resides in Sri Lanka where he holds the position of Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa, and where he continues to write and consult on issues of science, technology and the future.
Paul Preuss began his successful writing career after years of producing documentary and television films. Since 1980 he has published five novels in addition to those in the Venus Prime series, most recently Starfire. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, New York Newsday, the San Jose Mercury News, and other newspapers, and he has written numerous science articles for national publications, He frequently works as a science consultant for film companies in the San Francisco Bay area, where he lives when he is not walking in the mountains of Crete.